2x Postdoctoral Research Assistants in Knowledge Representation and Information Theory applied to fNIRS

Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica (INAOE) – Dept. of Computer Science

About the positions

The Department of Computer Science at INAOE in Puebla, Mexico, invites applications for 2 two years full-time postdoctoral research assistant positions in the field of functional optical neuroimaging interpretation. Initial contract will be short-term according to institutional internal regulations extensible up to 2 years as the candidate demonstrate his/her suitability for the position and maintains his performance and productivity.

You will be working under the supervision of Dr. Felipe Orihuela-Espina. You will be expected to publish in high impact factor journals as well as in top conferences of the area. You will also be expected to contribute and help, not only to the project but also to the research and teaching carried out in the lab and the department in general. You will also help with PhD student supervision. You might further be asked to help with administrative tasks related to this or related projects including but not limited to report generation and generation of new grant applications. All the former has to be delivered punctually against tight deadlines. This description of tasks might not be exhaustive.

Salary is regulated by CONACYT’s project administration manual.

About the project

Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is an emerging neuroimaging modality available for understanding brain behaviour for which current analysis and interpretation methods were often inherited and adapted from other neuroimaging modalities such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This migration of methods is never trivial or without compromises. This 3 years $2M MXN project explores alternative analysis and interpretation algorithms and techniques specifically developed for fNIRS which can answer complex questions about cognitive activity while considering and exploiting fNIRS specific particularities. More specifically, these positions aim at:

(i)      (Position Key: fNIRS-2016-01-KR) Exploring the use of knowledge representation techniques as a base for streamlining fNIRS experimentation, analysis and interpretation. Research tasks include, but are not limited to, the construction of conceptual maps defining experimental elements in fNIRS, the proposition of an initial ontology capturing fNIRS experimentation and the testing of different reasoning techniques over the ontology.

(ii)    (Position Key: fNIRS-2016-02-IT) Exploring the suitability of information theory metrics for expressing brain connectivity from fNIRS. Research tasks include, but are not limited to, developing semi-virtual registration approaches, strong validation proofs, mathematical development of metrics and pseudometrics for expressing brain connectivity.

The solutions resulting from this project will be evaluated in applications of surgical neuroergonomics for the study of learning and training of new surgeons, as well as in virtual rehabilitation for the observation of neuroplastic changes associated to the therapy administration.

To obtain further details of the project, please check contact details below.

About the candidate

Applications are sought in optical neuroimaging analysis and interpretation, with particular emphasis on the following topics:

-          Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

-          Knowledge Representation

-          Information Theory

-          Mathematical Topology

-          Statistics and experimental design

-          Medical Physics

Outstanding researchers in neuroimaging modalities other than fNIRS, but whose work is closely related with the current research project will be also considered.

Requisites:

·         Candidates must hold a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, statistics, physics, engineering) and have obtained this no more than 5 years before the starting date of the appointment.

·         You will be fluent in English. Spanish is welcomed but not strictly necessary.

·         You will have excellent communication skills (oral and written) linked with an excellent publication record.

·         You must have the potential to do pioneering research and to teach effectively.

·         You will have outstanding demonstrable coding expertise with numerical and symbolic packages (preferably Matlab)

·         You will have to be able to carry out research without supervision, and being able carry out collaborative research.

·         You will be able to deliver quality work following tight project deadlines.

·         If not Mexican, you will need work permit according to Mexican laws. An conditional invitation letter can be produced upon offering the job to support your application for work permit.

·         Other administrative and legal demands may have to be fulfilled to abide Mexican laws and institutional regulations.

About the institution, the department and the laboratory

INAOE is one of the top ranked research institutions in Mexico according to the international SCIMAGO institutions rankings. Created in 1971 following the research inheritance from the National Observatory of Astrophysics, INAOE is one of the national network of research centers from CONACYT.

The Computer Science Department at INAOE is one of the leading research departments in computer science in Mexico with 23 full-time researchers; 95% recognized by the National Researchers System (SNI) in Mexico and over 40% on the top levels. We offer Master and PhD degrees and all our students benefit from a scholarship. The department has 7 strong research groups also called laboratories in robotics, machine learning, natural language processing, vision, high performance computing, ubiquitous computing and networks, and the biosignal and medical applications.

The biosignal and medical applications laboratory develops several lines of research including neuroimaging processing and analysis, affective and persuasive computing, virtual neurorehabilitation and geomedicine. It is the proud pioneer in Mexico regarding emotion recognition from speech which generated the first spin up business from INAOE. It has recently been granted about $5M MXN infrastructure funds for strengthening the neuroimaging research line.

About the application process

To submit your application, please send by e-mail the following information in English to the contact below.

·         CV in free style including academic trajectory and full publication record, and clear contact e-mail.

·         A 5 pg maximum (11pt) statement explaining why you are the best candidate for the position and initial solution ideas. Please clearly indicate the position key (see above) for which you are applying for.

·         2 reference letters and the corresponding contact for referees. Please note, they might be contact for further information about the candidate.

The application process might involve one or more interviews, and demonstration of skills by means of a probatory task. Although we will try to answer all applications, if you haven’t heard from us within 3 weeks from your submission date please consider that your application has been unsuccessful.

The positions are available as from the 3^rd of January 2016 but earlier or later incorporations might be considered. The positions will be opened until suitable candidates are found.

Contact:

For further details about the project and how to apply and latest updates about the job offer, please visit:

http://ccc.inaoep.mx/~f.orihuela-espina/Src/Jobs.php

You will be working under the supervision of Dr. Felipe Orihuela-Espina.

e-mail: f.orihuela-espina@ccc.inaoep.mx